foreign bride, is forced to choose a wife from those beneath him, so
that the height of satisfaction is denied him.[35]

[35] Al. "supreme content, the quintessential bliss, is quite unknown
to him."

The tender service of the proudest-souled of women, wifely rendered,
how superlatively charming![36] and by contrast, how little welcome is
such ministration where the wife is but a slave--when present, barely
noticed; or if lacking, what fell pains and passions will it not
engender!

[36] Or, "the gentle ministrations of loftiest-thoughted women and
fair wives possess a charm past telling, but from slaves, if
tendered, the reverse of welcome, or if not forthcoming . . ."

And if we come to masculine attachments, still more than in those
whose end is procreation, the tyrant finds himself defrauded of such
mirthfulness,[37] poor monarch! Since all of us are well aware, I
fancy, that for highest satisfaction,[38] amorous deeds need love's
strong passion.[39]

[37] "Joys sacred to that goddess fair and free in Heaven yclept
Euphrosyne."

[38] For {polu diapherontos} cf. Browning ("Abt Vogler"), not indeed
of Aphrodisia conjoined with Eros, but of the musician's gift:

That out of three sounds he frame not a fourth sound, but a
star.